Wednesday, September 2, 2009

Aggrydar - the First Session - Rats in the Cellar

This is incredibly rough & will get a rewrite; but

I wanted to write down what I could recall first.

Ghesh, the Beffraen Ranger from East of the Dawnforge Mountains has traveled far in search of answers. Who, what is he? Where can he go? At every turn he is met with hostility - even the famous Five-League House turned him out. He slept instead in the Inn's stable, the raptor Locke his only companion. But in the City of Fallcrest, there is a Shrine to Bahamut; and the great Silver man-dragon has learned that more tolerance comes from worshippers of the Platinum Dragon than from others. Ghesh and Locke make their way to the old city.

At the House of the Sun, he met the Paladin, TravinSunare, a Man of great faith and courage, if only little wit. Travin takes an instant liking to the Beffraen, as the seven-foot Ranger reminds him of a statue to his God that resides in within the Temple.

In the Low City, below the falls, Travin introduces Ghesh to his friend Alek, an infinitely disturbing man who talks to spirits and unnerves most other folk. Even the Riverrats, the local bandits who plague the Lower Quays and much of the rest of Fallcrest, leave the haunted man to himself; but the Shaman finds he too has a liking for the draconian; and our party is formed.

As luck would have it, there is a seat for even one such as Ghesh within the Lucky Gnome Taphouse, and our trio of adventurers found themselves at ales in the late afternoon, when they were approached by Kelvan - the tavern keeper.

"I've a problem with rats," the man tells the strange two armed men and their great beast of a companion, "and I think you can help. I'll give you this Potion of Healing and 60 gp - plus any rat pelts & meat you can collect, if you'll rid me of the foul vermin."

The spirits whisper in Alek's ear that something isn't right; and he says as much - or tries to - but heroes are what they are and ours are no different, they accept and are shown the door to the cellar.

They fought & killed a great swarm of rats, two of which were larger and fiercer than any the three of them had ever seen. As the swarm dispersed, however, they noticed a number of the vermin fleeing through a small hole in the wall - apparently the base of what was once a secret door!

"Should we go up and check with the tavern keeper?" Travin asked; but they were here to kill rats, the Beffraen replied; and that was good enough for him. On they went, and were nearly skewered by the falling portcullis that closed off their exit.

The Shaman cursed - he knew something was wrong upstairs. Try as they might, however, they couldn't lift the iron gate more than a few inches. There was nothing to do but continue onward.

They fought many more of the vile creatures - learning again that the adventuring life is a dangerous one - before coming to a closed door, from behind which emanated the most foul odor of death and rot. Once opened, they found a room filled with carnage.

Half-and-mostly-eaten corpses littered room, strewn about with blood and entrails. The Men could not keep their lunch, but the Beffraen held his own until - while searching the lower half of an armored Dwarf - he managed to find more mess along with an intricate & well-fashioned metal belt. He stuffed the befouled thing into an empty pack before they continued on.

Eventually, the heroes found what appeared to be a storeroom, and the Wererat leader of the Riverratstreet gang! They make quick work of the lycanthrope and it's lackeys (and our dm learns just how F'n useful Action Points really are); and discover crates of stolen goods, a small personal shrine to Torog, the King that Crawls, an ancient shortblade, quite a nice sum of gold, and a rope hanging down from a tiny hole in the ceiling. Ghesh absently pulled the rope and the sound of bells in distance could be heard by all. They waited to see who would come running; but none did.

The party continued on through a hidden passage (opened by a fleeing bandit) and found themselves in the High City, and at the mercy of waiting guards. Some fast-talk, and a tour of the carnage below, and the heroes find themselves in the company of City Councilman Fehr - who happily awards the trio 100 gold in return for destroying the foul werebeast before it could spread its evil further in the city.

They manage not to tell Councilman Fehr of Kelvan's involvement; and once they leave the Aristocrat's home, they make their way back down to the Lucky Gnome...

Which is shut up tight.

The Ranger, Ghesh - who has lived on the outskirts of society his entire life, and has often been forced to resort to thievery - deftly opens the Taphouse lock and they find within, only an empty tavern.

Willy the Drunk (what was his name dammit? It wasn't Willy) stuck his head in, and asked if they was opening. No. Got anything to drink then? Ghesh gave the man an ale from one of the deserted tables. Thanks! And off he went.

A search for the tavernkeep's home turned up nothing but rumors of bandit activity on the Trade Road to the East - possibly the Riverrats expanding their territory? And a quick attempt to find a buyer for Ragebiter - the ancient, and likely magical blade found on the Wererat - revealed a tale about a magical sword buried nearly to the hilt in a standing stone amidst the southern Moon Hills.

The trio decided to pursue Kelvan to the East (if, indeed, that is where he went) after some much needed rest. And as they made their way out the Wizard's Gate, they encountered Skeeter Wanaminga, looking for help - any help - fighting off gigantic monsters plaguing his Pa's farm in the North.

And that was it. Time to call it a night. I'll flesh out some (and fix the tense discrepancies) tomorrow or Thursday. All in all, I heard it was good. Everyone was afraid of dying (lower hp, but no lower weapon damage); and I felt like I could have roleplayed more (or better) - but maybe alcohol & practice can help that? I dunno. More to come, I hope.

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I've flown from one side of this galaxy to the other. I've seen a lot of strange stuff, but I've never seen anything to make me believe there's one all-powerful Force controlling everything. There's no mystical energy field that controls my destiny. It's all a lot of simple tricks and nonsense.